Because drawing straws is not environmentally friendly.

How do I find the right writer to work with my business? I’ve worked with freelancers before, and it’s been hit-or-miss. It’s such hard work to find the right fit, that it seems easier to sit on this project (which, to be honest, has been on the to-do list for waaaay too long anyway). How can I make this happen so it’s worth the time and effort?

Professionals Get the Job Done

There’s a lot of apprehension when it comes to hiring freelancers. We work on our own terms! We call our own shots! We’re our own bosses, and no one can tell us what to do! That can be a bit difficult for business owners who’re used to having control.

Having control over the big picture is why a lot of us got into business in the first place.

But when we need to fill holes in our expertise, or when we don’t have the time, training, or inclination to complete a particular task, it’s time to hire out.

I don’t take my own headshots or do my taxes, and you don’t have to do your own writing.

How do you find a copywriter?

The ABBA Method

Ask for Referrals. Get a few names of people your friends like and trust.Budget. How much do you have to spend? It can be flexible and you can be vague about it, but “$200-300” is going to be a different project than “$2000-3000.”Brand. Think about what you want your brand voice to be. What kind of client are you appealing to?Affinity. Read some writing from the writers you’ve been referred to. Do you feel drawn to any of them? That’s your best place to start.

Now, let’s talk details.

How to Find a Copywriter

When you hire a plumber, there are Yelp reviews. You can call and ask when they’re available, and what the job might cost. With a copywriter, you might have to do a little more legwork, but you’ll get an awesome result when you use the Dancing Queen method (AKA the Take a Chance on Me Technique, Waterloo Way, etc.).

Ask for referrals

Designers, marketers, coaches agencies, and any of your particularly well-connected business pals should know some writers. Ask around, and try to get 3-4 recommendations — more if your project timelines or budgets are tight.

Budget

How much does it cost?

How much ya got?

Kidding, kidding.

Kind of.

Like any other professional service, it varies, and most writers get scared when you lead with “what’s it going to cost?” First, we don’t know, because we don’t have an idea of the scale of your project. Secondly, it makes us think that maybe you’re looking for a bargain. Red flag.

If your budget is $500, you won’t be able to get a website written from scratch from a professional copywriter. That’s just too much work and time. If you want a professional result, you need to budget for a professional rate.

Projects can be done in stages, but in most cases, you’ll want to redo your entire website at one time. Strategy is hard to implement piecemeal.

Brand

You’re gathering information from your network and taking a close look at your annual budget. Now it’s time to take a close look at your current communications, and how you’d like them to change.

What kind of writing are you looking for? Is your brand voice quirky, calming, or conversational?

Before you start talking to people about how to reach your goals, know what you want your result to look like.

Affinity

Writing is not an exact science, and it’s not one-size-fits-all. You might not like my writing, and that’s okay! (If not, it’s kind of weird that you’re reading my blog anyway, but you’re very welcome.) But when you read something in a style that resonates, you’ll know. You’ll just like it more.

A copywriter’s website will probably give you enough information to go on by itself — they must’ve written it themselves, after all.

Some writers will click, and some won’t. Pay attention to that first feeling. Writers can write in different styles, some more than others. They’ll want to meet you in the middle to create “your” voice in their words. Make sure your middle ground isn’t a long journey.

What’s next?

Find one or two people whose style you like? Get in touch! See if your budget and timeline will work for them. Get a feel for how they work and communicate.

Okay, you found a couple of people you might be interested in. Cool! Contact them! It might be an email or a phone call where you can feel each other out and get an idea if it makes sense to move forward with a longer introductory meeting.

When you like their writing style, the budget and timeline work for you, they’re enthusiastic about the work you need done, they seem like good people, congratulations. You found a copywriter. Hold on to them!

What issues have you had with hiring communications professionals?

Let us know in the comments, or email me questions at hello@kelleygardiner.com.

I’m always happy to make referrals to other copywriters who fit your project needs and style.

Like this information? I have so much more for my email buddies every month. Get on the list.

About six years ago, I needed someone to proof my book before self-publishing.

“I need an editor,” I said, probably on Facebook.

“A developmental editor or a copy editor?”

“Uhhh…”

I started googling.

For a profession that’s meant to clarify language, the title “editor” can be pretty unclear. It can mean different things in different situations — and when you need one, it pays to know exactly who it is you need to hire.

Shaping the Message

At a newspaper, it’s an editor. They assign story ideas, shape stories in progress, and cut what’s not working.

In small business, this is usually a content strategist. They’ll help you decide what kind of content you need, and can often coordinate creating it.

Shaping the Language

You have some content, but it’s rough around the edges. Your message not be clear, or it’s not creating the right impact as written.

At a newspaper, an associate editor might help shape stories after the writer has turned them in, making notes and asking for rewrites. They might rewrite sections themselves and write the headlines.

In business, a copywriter or editor will help you tighten up your content and make sure it appeals to your target market. They might include proofreading as well, depending on the project.

(Hey, this is a service I provide! If you need ongoing help with editing blogs and newsletters, let’s talk. I have room to take one or two new ongoing clients.)

Polishing the Finished Product

Once you’re sure your content is the right message, written in an effective way, it’s best to make sure all your grammar and usage is on point.

At a newspaper, this job is done by a copy editor or proofreader.

In business, this is done by a proofreader (though, as above, it might be included in a copy editing package). I don’t take projects that only include proofreading, but I have some wonderful proofers I work with who I’d be glad to refer you to.

Make sense? Feel free to check in with me if you have questions about any of this stuff. Don’t even feel bad if you end up hiring someone else — I’m glad to help you find someone who’s the perfect fit.

Most people, given the time and access to a laptop, could write their own website copy, it’s true.

It would be fine.

You learned to read and write at school. It’s not like flying your own plane; you don’t need advanced training in order to make words appear on the page.

(Many of you would rather fly a plane into an active volcano rather than spend an hour writing, but that’s beside the point.)

Why should you hire a professional writer to do something that you could technically do yourself?

To Get it Done

You’ve been saying that you’re going to redo your website copy… for how long now?

Even if you had the know-how and the inclination, does it make sense to spend your work time doing it? Or does it make sense to delegate it to a professional?

If you’re spending more than an hour a week keeping your books, you should probably hire an accountant. If you’ve put off an important writing project for more than a month, you should probably hire a writer.

To Get a New Perspective

Many people do a proficient job with their website copy, but there’s something missing.

Something super important.

Most of us have our blind spots, and they pop up most often when we look at ourselves.

It’s extremely obvious to you what you do, but is it obvious to everyone who reads your website?

A few times a month I’ll click to someone’s business site and wonder, “What the heck does this person even sell?”

When I worked in coffee shops in college, people would ask every day where the lids were. Over time, it because astounding, especially when the customer couldn’t figure it out from a simple direction like “over by the door.” It was information that was painfully obvious to me, someone who refilled the lids 20 times every week. It was not clear to someone who was taking in large amounts of new information about the coffee shop—where to order, what to order, where to pick up their drink, who was this stunning young woman behind the counter and why was she so intriguing, etc.

Hiring a writer puts a fresh set of eyes on you and your work.

To Let Someone Else Do the Bragging For You

Sometimes, we’ll forget how important it is to talk about how awesome we are.

I find this a lot with women entrepreneurs, to be honest.

Sometimes, when a client sends me a testimonial for their work, I’m blown away. They’re getting fantastic results, their clients love them for it, yet none of that is reflected in their website copy.

I met with an acupuncturist last year who told me an amazing success story for her client. When she was done, I looked at her and said, “That is an amazing. Why is NONE of it on your website?”

A professional writer doesn’t hype you up. They reflect your light.

To Feed Sales with Confidence

You want your website to be a killer marketing piece.

Is it?

I talk to a lot of business owners who aren’t excited to direct leads to their website, because it’s out of date or was never up to their standards.

Sound familiar?

What would it feel like to know that your website would work for you instead of against you?

To Get a Professional Result

Now, not to brag, but I read a lot. I read about writing. I read about copywriting.

And SEO.

And marketing.

I use all of that information, along with my experience in freelance writing, copywriting, and editing, to bring you a professional result.

That’s my job!

You’re the expert in your business, but copywriters are the experts in writing copy. Hiring a professional means you’ll get a strong scaffold of strategy to hang their beautiful words on. And strategy is all about creating a path that leads to sales.

Speaking of which…

To Support the Bottom Line

Look, we’re all in business to make money, right? I know it’s hard to say goodbye to cash dollars to get professional writing done, but good writing will support your goals. Do you want more traffic? More qualified leads?

What do you need that’ll increase the bottom line at the end of the month?

We’re talking about an investment in your business. You pay for plenty of intangibles that help your business: conferences, networking, training, sponsorships.

Put professional copywriting on your list.

What’s keeping you from paying for professional website copy? I want to hear from you!

I took a little time recently to think about mine. I’ve always known that certain things are important to me—like supporting nonprofits and creating an awesome product that makes my clients hear trumpets when they read it—but I’ve never written them down.

I guess I was busy writing other stuff.

Now, I have a draft of my core values that I’m feeling pretty good about, and I’d like to share it with you.

I wrote these as “we,” even though my business is me, my laptop, and an occasional outside proofreader. But, hey, it’s good to leave room for growth. And I want my occasional proofreaders to understand where I’m coming from.

Kelley Gardiner Content and Copy
[Draft?] Core Values

Habitual Joy
We seek out fun and cool projects. Life is short, and we do awesome work with people we want to hang out with.

Here to Help
We support small businesses, social justice causes, and nonprofits with our time, money, and talent. We work with people who do the same. We’re here to help our clients and their clients. We aim to make the world a better place for all kinds of people.

After all, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective tools out there for small businesses on a budget.

It doesn’t take much to start one up, but keeping it going… well, that’s where the issues start to pop up.

Nodding your head or tugging your collar? You’re not alone. Not by a long shot.

Email newsletters are extremely easy to put off. It’s hard to take time every week/month/quarter to figure out your overall messaging, let alone to write a newsletter that supports the rest of your marketing efforts.

“Writing? Yeah, yuck.”

I know how y’all roll.

That’s why I’m making my email newsletter writing service a formal offering. I’ve fallen into writing them for a couple of clients recently, and that makes me think there’s a need out there.

Questions and answers

Hold up. How much will this cost?
It depends on what you need! Do you need everything built from the ground up? Or do you have an outline that just needs to be filled out?

If you want a professional result, you’ll need to pay a professional price. How much does it cost you when you spend hours on yours? What does it cost to neglect your list?

We’ll make sure you get value for the service, or we won’t do it.

How do I start?
I’m only taking a few clients now, so email hello@kelleygardiner.com to let me know you’re interested. We’ll chat a bit, and if it sounds like a good fit, we’ll go through an intake process and get a contract in place.

Emailing me is always free, so don’t be scared about that part. I’M NICE.

What if I need help with, like, the whole thing. A lot of help.
Email me. If you need technical assistance that’s outside my area of expertise, I can refer you to an expert. I know people.

Yay! Let’s get started today. We’ll get more leads, and guide more warm leads to a sale.

1) Length: 200-500 words work for most pages

SCIENCE* SAYS 200-500 words is the sweet spot for most pages. That being said, it’s more about quantity than quality, but watch out for going on too long. Cut and tighten where you can.

See a big block of text more than a few lines long? Break it up.

*A few websites that I checked seemed to agree on that.

2) Voice: Does it match your brand? Appeal one-on-one to the ideal client?

When you read back through your website copy, does it feel like you? Does it feel like your brand? Is it speaking directly to one ideal client, or trying a scattershot approach?

You can’t please anyone. Not with a chocolate cake, and not with website copy. If you’re selling chocolate cake, write to the people who really want your chocolate cake in their lives (like me). Don’t try to convince the people who really prefer lemon.

3) Scannable: Good use of headings? Does it need bullet points?

We’ve talked about this: people don’t read.

Your home page is like a resume. What do you want people to take from it if they only spend ten seconds to see if it’s interesting?

Make sure your copy and design work together to make things scannable.

4) Jargon: Edit out industry language your client may not understand.

Know your audience. Does your client know industry terms, and expect you to use them? Do they need a little education before they buy? Or can you just toss the jargon completely?

Using terms your client doesn’t understand is a big-league turnoff.

5) Appearance: Check on laptop, mobile, different browsers.

Your beautiful tagline might get cut off on some screens. When you know that, you can make a decision about whether it’s better to change the tagline, or to deal with it as it is.

Try a simulator to get an idea of how your site looks on different size monitors, tablets, and mobile devices.

6) Consistent message: Read for discrepancies.

This one can be a bit tricky, especially if it takes you weeks, months, or years (I see you out there) to update your website copy.

Is every page a part of the same story? Do you have a tagline or call to action that’s worded a little bit differently on another page? Is there a consistent message throughout?

7) Consistent formatting: Keep a special eye on headings.

Okay, this is a fiddly one, but make sure each page of your website looks like it belongs with the others. We won’t get too deep into design stuff, but keep those headings, fonts, etc., consistent.

Call to action: Make it clear and easy to do. On every page.

Sure, you could wait for your customer to do what you want them to do. But wouldn’t it be a little faster and more effective to—you know—ask them?

What do you want your prospects to DO when they end up on your website?

Make sure you have a clear call to action on every page of your website.

What is a call to action, anyway?

You have to ask your prospect to take the next step.

It doesn’t have to be BUY NOW on every page. Far from it. But, every interaction should be a positive experience that could potentially lead to a sale down the road, right?

A call to action might be:

Call now

Sign up for my email newsletter

Donate

Leave a comment

Learn more

Book

Buy!

Customer Journey

You’ll need to figure out your customer journey before you can really dial in the call to action.

“Oh no Kelley, that sounds like marketing gibberish to me. Do I have to pay someone $5000 to figure out what my customers do?”

Nah, far from it. Unless you want to, or if you’re a huge corporation with super complex processes like T-Mobile. (If you are, what the heck are you doing here? I like the idea of a T-Mobile exec sitting in their office reading my blog before a meeting on the 17th floor.)

Anyway, you should have an idea of who your customer is, and what they do before the step where they give you money.

How long have they known about you?

Do they tend to do a lot of research before they buy?

Do they subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on social media?

What should my call to action be?

It depends, of course.

What kind of service or product are you selling?

What page are they on?

Let’s start with home pages, because they’re the ones that often get short shrift when it comes to a call of action.

What? For a B2B (business to business) service company with a higher ticket price, your call to action on the home page will often be “learn more,” with links to a more information, like a portfolio or pricing.

Why? Because your buyer is a mid-level professional who needs to research several options. They may need to justify or explain their choice to others. They need more information about your work before they proceed with contacting you.

What? For a small online retail business, you might put your product on the home page, and let the sales be your call to action.

Why? Because getting your customers to your sales page is the hard part, and that’s already done. They’re already interested. You can put beautiful photos of your product to entice even more, and a link to your online store. Your front page can even be your online store. Make it easy!

Furthermore… For a restaurant it might be “reserve your table.” For brick-and-mortar retail, you might want to tell your new internet friends to sign up for your email newsletter for 10% off their first purchase. And on and on.

What would you like leads to do after they land on your home page?

So it can be different on different pages?

It probably should be!

After all, if someone is on your sales page, you want them to buy something.

If someone is on your contact page, you want them to contact you, right? Or do you want them to go straight to booking an appointment? Or read your FAQ before sending you one more lousy email?

For me, I’ll put an email newsletter signup on this blog post, because that seems to me like the best time to ask you. You’re here, you got all the way to the end of the blog post, and you’re still not tired of me, so why not take that time to beg for your email address? KINDA KIDDING! (BTW, I send a helpful email once a month, so go ahead and sign up for it. There are always cute animal photos, and I don’t give your address to anyone else, so you really can’t lose.)

Design helps

Look.

I’m not an expert when it comes to design, okay? I mean… look around.

But from what I’ve read, design makes a huge difference when it comes to your call to action.

If you’re starting off DIY, with no budget for web design, I hear you. Your first step is making your call to action very clear.

Make it easy to find. And make it easy for me, as a reader, to understand what I’m supposed to do.

Watch out for clickable buttons that don’t look like buttons, and links that don’t look like links.

Ask a friend to look at your page and tell you what they’re supposed to do at the end. It’s super important to get feedback from someone who hasn’t been staring at your website for six weeks.

On a separate note, don’t get so wrapped up in beautiful design that the call to action gets totally lost.

Don’t just tell. Listen.

Part of writing website copy is staying open to changing it. Listening to your customers, asking for feedback, and adjusting your products accordingly will go a long way toward success.

Networking isn’t just for leads
Networking isn’t just about handing out business cards and getting hot leads. It’s also about learning what kind of questions the public has about you and what you do. Networking events are also opportunities to try out new messaging, especially if you can get an opportunity to talk to big group for a few seconds. Try out your new elevator pitch to see how many smiles and head nods you can get.

Ask questions on social media
You need to post something anyway. Be strategic about what kinds of questions you ask, and you might get a seed to some content strategy.

Do A/B testing
You don’t have the time to A/B test your entire freaking website, so try with the high-impact items like your call to action or email newsletter signup copy. (I just started an A/B test on mine, as part of research on how to get more people to sign up for your newsletter. Oh, hello! If you like this blog, you’ll love my newsletter!)

Do more A/B testing
Just one isn’t enough! Since you’re ideally just testing one variable in each test, it’ll take a lot of testing to get to your perfect copy.

Just when you have it all dialed in, your clients or the environment might change. Test, test again.

I had the extremely fun privilege to work with Upswept Creative on a website rewrite recently.

It was a special project because Sarah at Upswept is a talented writer. She wrote a blog post for my roller derby blog (many moons ago—what, I haven’t told you about my roller derby blog?), and it was one of my most-read posts ever.

There was no “bad” to edit out of this website. Just some refreshing, fine-tuning, and a couple of pages of new content to do.

But:

The language wasn’t reflecting the work they currently do, and what they wanted to do more of. They wanted to start working with larger companies, and filtering out prospects that don’t have the budget to take on a full-service design and branding firm. They had a new story to tell.

And:

When you write your own website copy, sometimes it’s hard to brag on yourself. Bringing in an outside professional with fresh eyes can clarify a new perspective.

After all, you know your own story. It’s hard not to see it when you look at your website because your brain fills in the holes for you. However, your prospects can’t see the full picture unless you tell them about it.

So:

We had a long talk about the business, their goals, and what their dream clients look like.

After we finalized the details of the project, I sent a questionnaire to clarify a few important points.

I did some research about best practices for web design and branding companies.

Writing/editing began in earnest! I started working on a couple of new pages to reflect their focus on design and branding, and refreshes on the other pages.

After my first draft, it got sent off to the Upswept team. Everyone got a chance to review the new copy and make comments. We edited via Google Doc, with everyone able to chat in the comments.

Once we chiseled away to a final version we all loved, I sent it away to an awesome proofreader. Even professionals get tired eyes when it comes to their own work. She bopped it on back to me minus some extraneous commas, and we were off and running.

When we work together, it can look however makes sense to you. Do you want to get your entire team involved early in the process? Would you rather make the decisions yourself? Would you like to edit live, on a Zoom call, or over the course of a few days? I’m glad to make suggestions, but you call the shots on what works for your workflow.